Breathing The Air In Venezuela? Prepare To Pay

There is something to be said about every socialist paradise in the history of socialist paradises: they always run out of other people's money. And when they do, stuff like this happens: the biggest international airport in Venezuela is charging a fee for the right to inhale clean air.

As BBC correctly notes, we're used to a seemingly endless range of taxes and surcharges when we fly - passenger taxes, departure taxes, fuel levies. But Maiquetia International Airport in Caracas has taken this a step further - passengers flying out now have to pay 127 bolivars tax ($20) for the air they breathe.

Wait, a tax to breathe the air? Why yes - it is meant to cover the cost of a newly-installed system which uses ozone to purify the building's air conditioning system. A press release from the Ministry of Water and Air Transport says it's the first airport in South America and the Caribbean to use the technology, which it claims will eliminate bacterial growth to "protect the health of travellers," as well as deodorizing and sanitising the building.

Needless to say, the denizens of the socialist paradise are all but enthused. From BBC:

But with tickets out of the country already expensive and scarce because of Venezuela's economic crisis, many on social media have responded to the tax with both humour and outrage.

Radio presenter Daniel Martínez tweeted: "Could you explain to me the ozone thing in Maiquetia? The toilets don't have water, the air-con is broken, there are stray dogs inside the airport, but there's ozone?"

"Soon we will be charged for the 'good gas'" was another tweet - a rueful reference to the tear gas that the police often use on opposition protesters. The satirical news blog El Chiguire Bipolar ran the headline: "Maiquetia Airport unveils robot that puts you upside-down and takes your money."

Some Venezuelans on social media fear the tax could end up being a new source of corruption. Others see it as evidence of how short of cash the airport is. Most international airlines have reduced the number of flights to the country because of a financial dispute with the Venezuelan government.

Depending who you ask, the tax is funny, infuriating, or just one more surreal aspect of a country that has the biggest oil reserves in the world, yet at the same time has shortages of toilet paper and sugar.

And in a "developed world" obsessed with minizing the impact of fossil fuels and maximizing the size of friendly totalitarian governments everywhere, and which is one reserve currency announcement away from being far more insolvent than Venezuela, one can be sure that Venezuela's experiment with air trax is coming to a socialist paradise near you.

The Global Warmists must be so jealous that despite spending hundreds of billion lying to the western world masses, they were unable to con them into a carbon tax, aka, taxing the right to breathe air. Instead, dumb, stupid Venezuela, pulls off the financial coup of the century ( biggest scam since the Fed Reserve) and convinces the local populace to buy into this fraud.

I'm waiting for medicinal marijuana air to become available in all US airports. You can't get anything easier than that. Why waste the effort of lighting up when its provided by the ventilation system.....people will willingly pay $20 for that.

When I teach my 10 year old the ways of the world we live in, I rouinely remind him that absolutely nothing is free in this world except for AIR....and now in one part of the world absolutely nothing is free

I'm not sure what's scarier. That he thinks anyone would belive that, or that maybe he believes it himself.

Just thank God that we have big oceans on either side of us and plenty of southern states we can give to Mexico to appease them as they slowly take us over by sheer numbers. Canada is still pretty friendly when it's time to escape the US.

Marc Rich's lawyer (Eric Holder) despite his lack of bringing charges on the Black Panthers in Philly or Lois Lerner at the IRS for "voter intimidation" seems to think we have a problem with, you guessed it, voter intimidation:

“I'm attorney general of the United States. I will not stand for -- I will not allow people to take away that which people gave their lives to give, and that is the ability for the American people to vote,” Holder said."

Really?

And its high time to talk about what "Rule of Law" this man operates under regarding illegal aliens. Is it this one?...

"How we treat those in need, particularly young people who must appear in immigration proceedings, many of whom are fleeing violence, persecution, abuse or trafficking — goes to the core of who we are as a nation," the attorney general said, explaining a program to provide 100 lawyers and paralegals for minors brought here by drug cartels and other human traffickers."

Sounds like capitalism. I provide you a service ( clean air) and charge for it. If you don't want to pay find an alternative route out of this shit hole. Now if they subsidize some users well that's socialism.

Note: Ozone , as in O3, is not good for the lungs or body, as it has an extra oxygen on the molecule which comes free during metabolism. So they are taxing, extorting, the people for the unhealthy air that they are pumping into the airport--must be the criminals of government at it again.

Pffft, that's nothing, you could pull that deal off in neo-capitalist nirvana Shanghai, and make serious bank.

At least Venezulans get a breath of fresh air. Here in America, courtesy of our tax dollars, some punk at DOJ screams how racist we are, we are ordered to mandatory gay sex indoctrination, and Nicaraguan babies are delivered right to our doorstep, just so the general public can raise dose cutey liddle baby Dem voters. Fckin oh joy.

Now, if they could get Venezulans to pay for sunshine, that would be truely awesome.

Maybe this explains in part why so many younger and not so younger Venzuelans are trying to get to the US by any means possible. I don't like the influx, but wouldn't you try to escape such a sick place?

Well I'm glad that they at least admit it's to pay for the fancy new airco and don't slap some excuse on it about how you should be always breathing the correct government approved amount of ozone to grow into a good and proper socialist citizen.